Reading guide
The abbreviation pattern begins
As with the preceding vagga's own second discourse (Footprints), this is the first of eleven similes in this vagga to write out only the base formula, per the elaboration instruction confirmed at this vagga's own close (SN 45.160) — the other three formulas are implied, not invented here.
Key terms
The text
§1“All the plants and seeds that achieve growth, increase, and maturity do so depending on the earth and grounded on the earth. In the same way, a mendicant develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path depending on and grounded on ethics, achieving growth, increase, and maturity in good qualities. And how does a mendicant develop the noble eightfold path depending on and grounded on ethics, achieving growth, increase, and maturity in good qualities? It’s when a mendicant develops right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion, which rely on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripen as letting go. That’s how a mendicant develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path depending on and grounded on ethics, achieving growth, increase, and maturity in good qualities.”
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